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The Common Good and the American Assumption The Common Good and the American Assumption
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Common Sense, Good Sense, and Redefining the Common Good Common Sense, Good Sense, and Redefining the Common Good
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The Role of the Christian Tradition In Shaping Common Sense and Reenvisioning the Common Good The Role of the Christian Tradition In Shaping Common Sense and Reenvisioning the Common Good
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“Put People First”: Debunking The Myth of the Middle And Reenvisioning the Common Good “Put People First”: Debunking The Myth of the Middle And Reenvisioning the Common Good
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Notes Notes
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The Myth of the Middle: Common Sense, Good Sense, and Rethinking the “Common Good” in Contemporary U.S. Society
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Published:December 2015
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Abstract
Although the reality of economic inequality in the United States continues to increase, the endurance of the myth of the American Dream persists. In this essay, I propose that the common good promoted in U.S. society is an unexamined aspiration for a strong middle class and an unsubstantiated principle of social mobility that masks our recognition of an inherent contradiction of advanced global capitalism—that wealth is created through growing impoverishment. I draw on Antonio Gramsci's notion of common sense to analyze the concept “middle class” as a hegemonic apparatus used to align a majority of people in the United States with a “politics of aspiration” while overlooking the failure of our economic system to ensure people’s basic economic human rights. I then engage Johannes Baptist Metz’s criticism of middle-class religion and H. Richard Niebuhr’s critique of capitalism to explore how a revolutionary Christian tradition can help challenge the fundamental social relationships that produce poverty in the midst of plenty. Finally, with a call from the grassroots to Put People First, I examine how developing a critical consciousness on the ground can begin to disrupt a worldview of American exceptionalism that masks the contradictions of capitalism and helps preserve the hegemonic power of the ruling elites.
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